you'll get away (eventually)
by drunken equilibrium
Summary: you can't stay here, it'll only make it so much harder / or the time Raffe came back to Penryn (she has her doubts).


_Disclaimer: Susan Ee owns it all._

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It has been about two weeks since they arrived at Obi's camp and, quite frankly, Penryn was pissed.

Not just pissed about the overall, angel-apocalypse taking over the world, although one should have a right to feel pissed about that, but the fact that she had been on night watch duty for about a week, and that her mother was still batshit insane and she was still expected to be the mother to Paige because apparently ignoring the fact Paige could take care of herself meant it didn't exist.

Storming around in the cool night air, Penryn took a deep breath and tried to feel less pissed.

It didn't work.

She groaned and continued about her patrol watch just outside the perimeter of camp, half in the forest and half out. For a second she wished that someone else was stationed out here too, so if low demons or angels decided to come out too she wouldn't have to fight alone.

_It's better this way though, because if Raffe-_

Penryn scowled and viciously tugged her hair back from her face.

_He won't come. Stupid stupid stupid stop thinking about him stop thinking about him Jesus he kisses you _once _and returns you to your family and you're off like a lovesick puppy_-

Then the stars was blotted out by a dark flying thing much too large to be a bird (_or bat_, an evil corner of her mind suggested slyly) and Penryn was equal parts terror _(runrunrunrun) _and grim determination _(come at me bastard)_. She felt breathless and hyper and _why isn't someone here someone should be here now someone should have seen that._

But it was very dark, and no one else was out on patrol this far out to see it since it was so close to the canopy of the forest and Penryn realized, with a sinking feeling in her stomach, she needed to deal with this herself, lest it attacked the camp (or her) while she ran back to get help.

The hopefully-not-angel was further out in the forest, and Penryn crept forward as silently as she could, and hoped against hope that maybe the hopefully-not-angel was deaf and blind and without a weapon, because that would just make it _so _much easier.

_Oh crap._

The hopefully-not-angel was not anything but an angel, but didn't appear to have a weapon on him. But since the features facing her were in shadow and he didn't seem see or hear she might be able to-

He turned his back to her.

Penryn was left staring at the bat wings on his back, and felt like either her heart was going to drop out of her chest or she would be turned to marble.

"Raffe?"

He jerked around to face her and for a horrible second, she thought she got it wrong. It wasn't Raffe it was another angel and he was going to kill her _get a weapon out dammit Penryn_. She would've, but the expression on his face made her freeze. It was raw and visceral and Penryn was struck by an awful thought.

_He's going to fly away._

"Raffe don't you dare fly away or I swear I will-"

She can't finish the sentence because he's collapsed in front of her and pulled her to him and his arms are wrapped around her waist, squeezing so tight it's like he believes that if he dare let go she'll disappear.

And for an odd, unprecedented second it felt like she was floating, because that's how it feels, when the decision you so firmly made decides to backflip its way out of your mind and leave its counterpart there instead.

_I don't want you here. Go away. Leave. Leave _please.

She decides against not saying it, only because it sounds like begging and Penryn's Number One Rule is to _not beg_.

So instead she tries to push him away and get onto her feet, so she can get back to camp and forget about this and try to never get night patrol again, not if she can help it, because this is too painful and he'll just _leave_.

He'll let go of her and turn around and fly away and never talk or see her again because their paths don't coincide anymore, not after everything in the aerie. They were like two lines crossing over each other, fated to meet once but never again.

Once that thought crossed her mind, she pushed against him with renewed vigor because if that's how it's going to be, she wanted to leave him on her own terms.

Raffe seemed to get the message and slowly let her go, one muscle in his arms released at a time, until they're sitting on the ground, facing each other.

Penryn can only stand the emotion in his eyes for so long before she gets off the ground and turns back to camp. She gets approximately three steps before his hands spin her around and she's back against his chest.

"Don't leave." His voice is low and gravelly and his but not his at the same time and she wonders how a person so cold could undergo such a transformation in a fortnight.

"But you'll leave me." It slips out of her, so quiet she barely realizes she said it, and when she does she wants to sink into the ground and never have to deal with these kinds of feelings ever again.

But it's true. Inevitably true, in fact. The rest of the camp will force him out or he'll leave to find his wings and she can't leave she has a mother and a baby sister to take care of _(okay the obligation to take care of her mother and baby sister) _and when it all comes down to it, a human and an angel were never meant to team up in the first place so this _shouldn't be happening_.

"No, I won't leave. I won't, Penryn," He breathes her name like it's sacred, "I-"

He cuts off, and buries his face in her hair and Penryn thinks on a constant loop _no Raffe you can't be here you can't stay here it'll only make it so much harder._

But she stays in his arms while the sky brightens and the stars fade, and she knows she shouldn't but she does anyway, because she Will Not Beg and he'll leave eventually.

_he has to _he has to_ he has to._

But then he lifts his head from her hair and presses his lips against hers, and suddenly, she's not too sure about anything anymore.

_**end.**_

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the tenses were weird and the characters were probably OOC and it was really rushed and didn't make sense but i just needed to get that out of my system so bad, ugh.


End file.
